Criteria

Page Summary

Targeting and exclusion of various criteria are supported by the CampaignCriterionService, AdGroupCriterionService, and CustomerNegativeCriterionService.
The CampaignCriterionService allows for campaign-level targeting and bid modifiers for various criteria types.
The AdGroupCriterionService enables targeting and exclusion at the ad group level for a range of criteria.
Negative targeting at the account level is supported by the CustomerNegativeCriterionService for specific criteria types.

Targeting criteria can be set at three different levels:

At the campaign level.
At the ad group level.
At the customer level.

Not all criteria types can be set at all levels: some, for example, can be set only at the campaign level. Additionally, some criteria can only be used for negative targeting, and some can only be used for positive targeting.

Supported criteria by level

The following table describes the allowed usage of all criterion types:

Type	Positive?	Negative?	Available levels	Notes
Ad schedule	Yes	No	Campaign
Age range	Yes	Yes	Campaign Ad group
App payment model	Yes	No	Ad group
Audience	Yes	No	Ad group	Refer to the Demand Gen audience targeting guide.
Brand list	Yes	Yes	Campaign Ad group	At the ad group level, only positive targeting is supported.
Carrier	Yes	No	Campaign
Combined audience	Yes	No	Campaign Ad group	See the combined audiences Help Center article.
Content label	No	Yes	Campaign Customer
Custom affinity	Yes	No	Campaign Ad group	Defined by `CustomInterest` resources. For audience segments that combine keywords, URLs, and apps, use `CustomAudienceInfo`; see the custom audiences guide.
Custom audience	Yes	No	Campaign Ad group	Defined by `CustomAudience` resources. See the custom audiences guide.
Custom intent	Yes	No	Ad group	Defined by `CustomInterest` resources. For audience segments that combine keywords, URLs, and apps, use `CustomAudienceInfo`; see the custom audiences guide.
Device	Yes	No	Campaign	Set `bid_modifier` to `0.0` to opt out of a device type. Use `AdGroupBidModifier` for ad group-level device bid adjustments; see the bid modifiers guide.
Entity bid	Yes	No	Ad group	In v25 and later, sets an item-level bid (`item_code`) for a travel entity (such as a hotel, thing to do, or event) in Vertical Ads using the `VERTICAL_ADS_ITEM_BID` criterion type.
Extended demographic	Yes	Yes	Campaign Ad group
Gender	Yes	Yes	Campaign Ad group	Campaign-level gender exclusions (`negative = true`) are also supported for Performance Max campaigns. Attempting to target only the `UNDETERMINED` category in a demographic dimension returns `CriterionError.CANNOT_TARGET_ONLY_UNDETERMINED`. See Version differences for demographic validation rules in v24 and later.
Income range	Yes	Yes	Campaign Ad group
IP block	No	Yes	Campaign Customer
Keyword	Yes	Yes	Campaign Ad group	At the campaign level, you can only exclude keywords.
Keyword theme	Yes	Yes	Campaign
Language	Yes	No	Campaign Ad group	In v24 and later, attempting to target a disallowed language returns `CriterionError.CANNOT_TARGET_LANGUAGE`.
Life event	Yes	Yes	Campaign Ad group
Listing group	Yes	No	Ad group	Tree-based structure for Hotel Ads and Shopping campaigns. See the Shopping listing groups guide.
Listing scope	Yes	No	Campaign
Local service ID	Yes	No	Campaign	Represents a service type for Local Services Campaigns. In v24 and later, Local Services service ID signals can also be set on Performance Max asset groups using `AssetGroupSignal.local_services_id`.
Location	Yes	Yes	Campaign Ad group	See the location targeting guide. In v24 and later, removing all locations from a Local Services Performance Max campaign returns `CampaignCriterionError.CANNOT_REMOVE_ALL_LOCATIONS_FROM_LOCAL_SERVICES_PMAX_CAMPAIGN`.
Location group	Yes	No	Campaign	Target multiple geographic regions using a distance radius. See the location targeting guide.
Mobile app category	Yes	Yes	Campaign Ad group Customer
Mobile application	Yes	Yes	Campaign Ad group Customer
Mobile device	Yes	No	Campaign
Negative keyword list	No	Yes	Customer	Links an `ACCOUNT_LEVEL_NEGATIVE_KEYWORDS` shared set to an account (at most one per account).
Operating system version	Yes	No	Campaign
Parental status	Yes	Yes	Campaign Ad group	At the campaign level, only negative targeting is supported.
Placement	Yes	Yes	Campaign Ad group Customer	Managed placements support positive targeting at the campaign and ad group levels, and negative targeting at all levels. Limits on URL length (250 chars) and depth (2 levels); `adsenseformobileapps.com` is not allowed.
Placement list	No	Yes	Customer	Links a `NEGATIVE_PLACEMENTS` shared set to an account to exclude placements across campaigns.
Proximity	Yes	No	Campaign	Created using an address or latitude-longitude and a radius. See the location targeting guide.
Retail filter bundle	Yes	Yes	Ad group	In v24 and later (allowlisted accounts only), links a `RETAIL_FILTER` shared set to an ad group (or to `AssetGroupListingGroupFilter` in Performance Max campaigns) for dynamic tag-based product filtering.
Topic	Yes	Yes	Campaign Ad group
User interest	Yes	Yes	Campaign Ad group	Verify the availabilities are compatible with the campaign type. Some user interest options are only available for specific campaign types.
User list	Yes	Yes	Campaign Ad group	Use the ID of the user list.
Vertical ads item group rule list	Yes	Yes	Ad group	Links a `VERTICAL_ADS_ITEM_GROUP_RULE_LIST` shared set to an ad group in Search campaigns with travel feeds (also supported on `AssetGroupSignal` in Performance Max campaigns in v24 and later for accounts on an allowlist).
Video lineup	Yes	Yes	Campaign Ad group	Specifying an invalid lineup ID returns `CampaignCriterionError.INVALID_VIDEO_LINEUP_ID`.
Webpage	Yes	Yes	Campaign Ad group	Used to target or exclude specific pages on an advertiser's website based on conditions. Setting a `Webpage` criterion as negative is used to implement URL exclusions.
Webpage list	No	Yes	Campaign	Links a `WEBPAGES` shared set to exclude a list of webpages at the campaign level (available to accounts on an allowlist only).
YouTube channel	Yes	Yes	Campaign Ad group Customer
YouTube video	Yes	Yes	Campaign Ad group Customer

Version differences

Several criterion types and validation behaviors differ across supported Google Ads API versions:

v25 and later: Supports the EntityBid (entity_bid) criterion on AdGroupCriterion with criterion type VERTICAL_ADS_ITEM_BID to set item-level bids for travel entities in Vertical Ads.
v24 and later:
- Supports RetailFilterBundle (AdGroupCriterion.retail_filter_bundle and AssetGroupListingGroupFilter.Dimension.retail_filter_bundle) and RetailFilter (SharedCriterion.retail_filter) for tag-based product filtering (allowlisted accounts only).
- Supports the user_rating, venue, and event_participant_display_name rule dimensions on VerticalAdsItemGroupRuleInfo in SharedCriterion.
- Supports AssetGroupSignal.local_services_id and AssetGroupSignal.vertical_ads_item_group_rule_list (allowlisted) for Performance Max asset group signals.
- Returns CriterionError.CANNOT_EXCLUDE_ALL_TARGETS when attempting to exclude all targets within a demographic dimension (AgeRangeInfo, GenderInfo, IncomeRangeInfo, or ParentalStatusInfo).
- Returns CriterionError.CANNOT_TARGET_LANGUAGE when attempting to target a disallowed language.
- Returns CampaignCriterionError.CANNOT_REMOVE_ALL_LOCATIONS_FROM_LOCAL_SERVICES_PMAX_CAMPAIGN when attempting to remove all locations from a Local Services Performance Max campaign.

Audience info targeting criteria

You can target audiences at the ad group level using AudienceInfo criteria on AdGroupCriterion.audience. Set ad_group_criterion.audience.audience to the resource name of the Audience you want to target. To use AudienceInfo criteria on an AdGroupCriterion, you must set ad_group.audience_setting.use_audience_grouped = true when creating the ad group (this setting is immutable after creation). You can also optionally set campaign.audience_setting.use_audience_grouped = true when creating the campaign to prevent segment and demographic exclusions at the campaign level.

Inspect `MutateAudienceResult` for `audience_id`

When creating an audience with AudienceService.MutateAudiences, each operation returns a MutateAudienceResult. You can inspect MutateAudienceResult to obtain the audience_id by parsing the returned resource_name, and you can inspect mutable fields (such as name) on the returned audience object when response_content_type is set to MUTABLE_RESOURCE:

# Inspect MutateAudienceResult to get audience_id.
for result in response.results:
    resource_name = result.resource_name
    # Format: customers/{customer_id}/audiences/{audience_id}
    audience_id = audience_service.parse_audience_path(resource_name)[
        "audience_id"
    ]
    print(f"Created audience '{resource_name}' with ID '{audience_id}'.")

    # Access mutable fields on result.audience when MUTABLE_RESOURCE is requested.
    if result.audience.resource_name:
        print(f"Audience name from mutable resource: {result.audience.name}")

Overview

Shared sets